Home Invasion Shakes Pikesville Community

A man and his teenage daughter were tied up and robbed after two men forced their way into a home in the 3200 block of Hatton Road in Pikesville Tuesday night.

The men stole computer tablets, jewelry, a camcorder, a wallet, cash, an iPod Touch and a cell phone, according to a statement from Baltimore County police. The suspects moved a television, but did not take it, and fled the scene after the man told them he activated the home’s alarm, police said.

Nathan Willner, a Shomrim spokesman, said the Northern Park Heights community has never seen this type of crime.

“This is extremely frightening and we’re taking this very seriously,” he said. “It’s definitely shaken the community to its core.”

Police believe this may be related to an incident that occurred earlier that evening in the 700 block of Leafydale Terrace in Pikesville.

In the Hatton Road incident, the men knocked on the door at 8:15 p.m., and one was holding an empty cup and asked for some water. The man who answered the door took the cup, and turned to go to the kitchen, at which point the two men entered the home. One of them brandished a handgun, forced the man and his teenage daughter into the living room, tied them up and robbed them, police said. They suffered minor injuries that did not require transport to a medical facility, police said.

Police responded to the scene at 8:36 p.m.

At 7:50 p.m. Tuesday, two men wearing masks and armed with handguns approached a man getting out of his car in front of a home in the 700 block of Leafydale Terrace. They took the man’s cell phone and wallet, walked him to a nearby house and went inside. The robbers noticed many people inside the home, and fled the scene towards Milford Mill Road after one of them commented that there were too many people there, according to police.

The Baltimore County Police Pikesville Precinct Investigative Services Team are investigating the incidents and trying to determine if the victims were targeted, police said.

Shomrim President Ronnie Rosenbluth said that crime in the neighborhood has progressed over the past year from shed break-ins, to burglaries when residents are not home, to burglaries while residents sleep, to this recent incident.

“I haven’t heard of anything like this in the last 25 years in our neighborhood,” he said.

After Shomrim received a call from the family at 8:41 p.m., Rosenbluth sent Shomrim members to the home. Shomrim received another call from a family that said two suspicious men had knocked on their door, and Rosenbluth relayed the description of the men to Shomrim members at the scene, who relayed it to police.

“We followed through and somebody checked in on the family again last night, and we’re hoping these guys get caught,” Rosenbluth said.

He estimated that Shomrim had more than a dozen people on the street last night looking for possible suspects to help police in their investigation.

In the Leafydale Terrace incident, one suspect was described as a black male, 30 to 40 years old, 6 feet tall, was wearing a black leather jacket, ski mask and dark blue jeans and had a silver handgun. The second suspect was described as a black male, 18 to 26 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, was wearing a black jacket, ski mask, black jeans, brown boots and had a dark colored handgun, police said.

In the Hatton Road incident, one suspect is described as a black male, 28 to 30 years old, six feet tall, wearing a black parka-style jacket, a brown mask that covered his face from the nose down, black pants and brown work boots, and had a silver handgun. The second suspect was described as a black male, 18 to 20 years old, 5 feet 10 inches, wearing a black jacket, black mask that covered his face from the nose down and black pants, police said.

Police reminded residents to not open the door for strangers and to report suspicious activity to police. Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-887-1279.